This invention relates to wireless telecommunications systems and, in particular, to the provision of a feature that enables network operators and/or service providers to dynamically authorize a user to receive services for which the subscriber has not previously subscribed or which are not supported in the user""s home network.
It is a problem in the field of wireless telecommunications systems for network operators and/or service providers to offer a subscriber wireless services that either are not supported in their home network or to enable a user to access a particular service offering, on a per call basis or for a selected period of time, for which the subscriber has not previously subscribed. The service may not be available in the subscriber""s home network because it may not be economical for the home network operator to provide the requested service, or the home network may not be technically capable of providing the requested service on its own. In these instances, the roaming user is denied the service since the home network operator does not support the service. Alternatively, the user has not contracted to receive a requested wireless service, but may be willing to pay for use of this service on a per call basis or for a predetermined period of time, whether in the user home network or while roaming in a visited network. In both of these instances, the user is denied service in existing wireless telecommunications systems.
In existing 1st and 2nd Generation wireless networks, the user access authorization feature is processed every time a wireless mobile user station registers and a service request originates from this wireless mobile user station. The service request is processed using either a switch-based or an intelligent network-based approach. The switch-based approach entails a user originating a request to the Mobile Switching Center of the serving network to register and place a request for service. The service request is forwarded by the Mobile Switching Center of the serving network to the user""s Home Location Register if the user is located in their home network, or to the Visited Location Register of the serving network if the user is roaming. In the latter case, the Visited Location Register of the serving network requests subscriber profile information from the user""s Home Location Register to determine whether the user is authorized to receive the requested service. The user""s request for service is either authorized or denied based upon data stored in the subscriber""s Home Location Register if any of a number of conditions are met. It is denied if the requested service is not supported by the subscriber""s home network, the subscriber has failed to subscribe to the requested service, a resource necessary to provide the service is unavailable, the user identification is invalid, and the like. In the Wireless Intelligent Network approach to processing a service request, the service request is detected at a Wireless Intelligent Network trigger point in the Mobile Switching Center of the serving network. The Wireless Intelligent Network processes the service request in a manner analogous to that described above for the switch-based approach.
Therefore, existing wireless telecommunications systems are static in their response to user service requests and are incapable of dynamically adapting to the ever-changing needs of the wireless users. The subscriber service profile is managed statically in a manual manner, and in real time, it cannot be revised to address user needs on a per call basis or on a temporary basis. An existing feature in ANSI-41 2G provides capability for xe2x80x9cOver The Air Service Provisioningxe2x80x9d (OTASP). However, once the service is provisioned/subscribed, the authorization procedure becomes the same as the static procedure described above.
The above described problems are solved and a technical advance is achieved by the flexible access authorization feature for wireless telecommunication systems which enables network operators and/or service providers to dynamically authorize a user to receive services for which the user has not previously subscribed or which are not supported in the user""s home network. This is accomplished by enabling a mobile user to obtain the services which they need. This is done regardless of the user""s location in the wireless communication network and regardless of the present set of subscribed services for which the user is authorized to use.
This flexible access authorization feature expands the marketability of various supplementary and customized wireless services and increases the rate of return on investment for the wireless telecommunication networks by making the services available on a per call rather than on a fixed subscription basis. This is accomplished by real time interaction among the relevant functional entities (UIMF, MCF, LMF, SCF) of the wireless telecommunications system to obtain new and/or additional subscriber information to execute the flexible access authorization program to decide on authorizing access to a selected service. The flexible access authorization logic can reside in any of a number of network entities, including: UIMF, LMF (enhanced VLR/HLR) or SCF. The interactions among these functional entities can examine a number of conditions to determine access authorization for a user with respect to a wide range of services, including: time-dependent, location-dependent, account billing dependent, and other factors.
The use of a supporting network for wireless telecommunication systems assists in the execution of the flexible access authorization feature to provide desired services to the mobile user terminal, directly through the inter-connection of the visited network with the supporting network. The network inter-connection can be made possible by the use of a unique Network-to-Network Interface protocol that enables a supporting network operator to become a purveyor of third generation mobile telecommunications services to users who are presently served by wireless communications networks that are incapable of providing these services.